


Where We're From, There's No Sun

by Jaune_Chat



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gen, Modern Bucky Barnes, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 11:51:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14789999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaune_Chat/pseuds/Jaune_Chat
Summary: During the aftermath of the HYDRA reveal, the agents of SHIELD find what would have been the newest Winter Soldier.  Rescued and recruited into rebuilding SHIELD, Bucky Barnes finds himself working alongside Daisy Johnson as they try to keep people safe from the strangest threats the world can throw at them.





	Where We're From, There's No Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [princessoftheworlds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessoftheworlds/gifts).



> This covers roughly from the end of S1 to the midpoint of S5.
> 
> Much thanks to Princess of the Worlds for collaborating, brainstorming, cheerleading, betaing, and of course doing the inspirational artwork!

\--

“Get back here!” The distant voice was mostly exasperated and a bit nasal, not exactly the rough military bark Skye and May had been expecting in a HYDRA compound. “There’s nowhere to run. You’ve caused us enough trouble, Forty-Two!”

“That’s not my name!” _That_ voice was much closer, younger, angrier, definitely in pain, and much more desperate. 

“Your name doesn’t matter. We’re taking it from you regardless. You’re going to be part of something great, and you can either do it willingly-”

“I’ll never join you!”

Whoever was yelling back at Nasal Voice, Skye liked them immediately. That was the best Luke Skywalker “Empire Strikes Back” imitation she’d heard since the last ComicCon.

“Or unwillingly. Heskett, take him alive!”

Skye swung out of hiding as May signaled, sending a short burst of ICER rounds at the HYDRA stooge who had his weapon trained on the bruised and bloody half-naked man who was collapsed against the corridor wall. The stooge took it in the vest and exposed neck, collapsing in an insensate heap as May ICERed the lab-coat-wearing weedy man at the end of the hall. She advanced enough to check the doorway where her target had collapsed, and Skye heard her ICER fire three more times. 

She signaled for “all clear,” and Skye turned her attention to the half-naked guy who looked like five miles of bad road. He’d clearly gotten the worst of some fists, boots, probably a baton or two, along with something that had burned him. Electrodes, maybe, she guessed from the placement. All of that was secondary to the elaborately articulated silver metal replacement for his left arm from the shoulder down. The scarring around there was barely healed, still angry and red in places, bleeding in others.

She listened briefly to the chatter in her comm – it sounded like the other groups had managed to get the rest of the compound secured, and she heard May chime in that they had found a prisoner. She and May could take a second to determine if the guy was someone caught up in one of HYDRA’s experiments or a true believer who was suckering them. She didn’t want what had happened to Mike Peterson to happen to anyone else.

Then again, she didn’t want another Grant Ward either.

The man on the floor lifted his head, long hair falling away to reveal more cuts and bruises around his pale eyes. Somewhere below the damage was a good-looking guy, but Skye was understandably distracted by the cybernetic hardware on his left side. It didn’t look like the Deathlok tech, not exactly, but it was the closest thing she could compare it to. 

She kept her grip on her gun as the guy blinked up at her, confused. The scientist guy May had tagged had implied some type of brainwashing going on, so she couldn’t even be sure the guy was playing with a full deck. Bakshi’s brainwashing could be very subtle until someone got hit with trigger words and went full psycho.

The man staggered to his feet, breathing out slowly and seemingly trying to catch his balance.

“We’re SHIELD, not HYDRA,” Skye said quickly.

“You going to be calm?” May asked, coming up from his other side.

“Don’t want to be,” the guys said, his voice ragged from fatigue and probably screaming. “Got a spare gun? I got a score to settle with those HYDRA assholes.”

Skye appreciated the guy’s moxie, definitely.

“If it’s the idiots in the lab, they’re already down for the count,” May said steadily. She stiffened slightly and Skye listened as a report came in over the comms. Someone on HYDRA’s side had called for backup and already there was the chatter of gunfire below.

“How about you zip-tie these prisoners, keep them alive for questioning, and guard the corridor from anyone escaping?” May said, tossing him a bundle of ties. She also gave him one of the spare radios from the HYDRA guard’s belt: enough to keep in contact, but not on SHIELD’s frequencies.

“Will do, ma’am,” the man said, nodding at both of them, May solemnly, Skye with a bit more animation and almost a smile. He grabbed the guard’s baton and flicked a switch on the bottom to listen to it hum with electricity. He twirled it with casual grace and took up his post.

Skye radioed the others about their find as they swept through the rest of their section of the HYDRA/Cybertek compound.

“Seems like he’d be a good draft pick,” she said, sliding a glance over at May.

She slid her eyes back and her lips quirked a tiny fraction. “Take it up with Coulson when we get back.”

\--

_Two years later_

“I don’t think Hunter’s heard whole the story yet,” Daisy said, flopping down on the couch. Bobbi was back from her latest round of rehab, and Hunter was sitting close by, nudging beers around the table for anyone who wanted one. 

“Do I have to?” Bucky said, whining like a little kid, and Daisy made a face at him. He grinned, glad to see her in a good mood, hell, glad to be in good mood himself. She’d been through the gauntlet last year, what with gaining superpowers, and parents, and then losing the latter through a whole lot of tragic circumstances and old lies. Bucky had spent most of it getting his head on straight and running with Mike Peterson to help stamp out as many HYDRA cells as they could. But Mike preferred to go solo, and Bucky was more than eager to answer Coulson’s job offer.

~

_“We need to get out in front of what’s happening with the Inhumans. They’re popping up all over from contaminated seafood and fish oil, they’re scared, and they don’t know what’s happening to them. I’m already forming a team to help them out, give them options.”_

_“Who else is on it, sir?”_

_“One person. And now you, if you want to be.”_

_Bucky knew he must look skeptical, and Coulson smiled a bit._

_“You’re not Inhuman, but you know what it’s like to have a sudden and invasive life change. Mike Peterson has nothing but good things to say about you. And we need someone who’s just enough on the outside of this so they can’t try to sweep you all up together.”_

_“What about HYDRA?”_

_“HYDRA will still be there. I don’t expect them to avoid trying to gather a ‘resource’ like Inhumans. You’re going to protect them.”_

_Bucky stood taller. “I’m in, Director. Where’s the team?”_

_“Right here.” Skye stepped dramatically out of a shadowed corner, and Bucky kicked himself for not noticing she was there. Coulson raised an eyebrow at her, and she smirked at him._

_“Hey Bucky, glad to see you face-to-face. The Skype sessions get old, even for me.”_

_“Mike got tired of running them, but I didn’t get tired of having ‘em,” he said, reaching out to clasp her arm. “Good to see you… Daisy,” he said, catching himself before saying her old name. He’d known for months, and it still tripped him up. He guessed it helped he hadn’t known her much as Skye before._

_“Come on, let’s go check the boards and see who we can save.”_

~

“You guys remember that guy who shot Director Fury? The one Cap fought in D.C.?” Bucky said.

“The Winter Soldier. I’d heard of him. More of a myth than anything, a ghost story we used to talk about on stakeouts,” Hunter said, nodding.

“So he was HYDRA’s boogeyman, but he wasn’t just one guy. They always kept someone around with the skills and the looks so they could pretend the guy was immortal. Some of them were volunteers, some were snatched and brainwashed. The guy they got for Project Insight was one of the brainwashed ones, poor bastard. They emptied him out, put in HYDRA loyalty and obedience, and then cut him to look like the original Howling Commando Bucky Barnes just to screw with Captain America.”

Bobbi sat up a little straighter. “I didn’t know _that_.”

“I got saddled with the name because my Mom was a huge history buff. Went into the Army and then SHIELD because she talked about it so much. Anyways, by the time HYDRA got me, they had the system pretty slick. They actually had a layer of false memories recreated from World War II they were going to shove into me once they’d toasted my brain and done some plastic surgery. Their first attempt didn’t kill Captain America outright, so version forty-two,” he waved at himself, “was supposed to be a sleeper assassin. Once I was ‘finished’, they were going to rough me up and toss me out into the world and let him find me. I was supposed to gather intel and then kill him and every other Avenger I could.”

“I’d say that sounds too elaborate, but we’ve fought weirder,” Daisy said.

“This week,” Hunter added pointedly.

“They actually had a _highlight reel_ of the old Winter Soldiers, and a damn _Power Point Presentation_ of what my mission was going to be, before the hardcore brain fuckery started. I was gone for… what, six months before SHIELD found me, and those things were the worst.” He said it with a tight smile, whistling in the dark of a very bad time in his life.

“He had you for six months?” Hunter looked more than a bit incredulous. “Mate, I heard what happened to Agent 33, and she was under Bakshi’s control for maybe a month.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have trusted me either. I didn’t, not for a long time. The only reason I survived with my mind intact was because HYDRA got impatient when they snatched me up,” Bucky said, looking a little devious. Hunter leaned back after he’d batted another beer towards Bucky. 

“Details,” he commanded, and Bucky obliged. 

“I was backup security detail for Helicarrier Three. HYDRA had make sure they’d gotten the primary crews for all three ‘carriers before Project Insight launched, but they’d only made partial inroads onto the backup crews. When shit started blowing up in D.C., we were moved into ready position as a precaution. Then Cap made his speech.” Bucky closed his eyes for a moment. “I had my piece out and was ready to go kick some ass and save the world. Then half of who I thought were my friends had their guns pointed at me instead.”

Hunter nodded solemnly. “Bobbi had the same thing happen to her. She was at sea.”

“That had to suck,” Bucky said.

“It did. Ask Mack, he was there,” she said, a dark expression flickering across her face.

“Yeah. And you already heard what happened to Coulson’s team with Ward. Utter pillock. So, Helicarrier, surrounded by HYDRA,” Hunter prompted.

Bucky nodded, rubbing at his metal wrist absently. “There’s a standoff, then a shootout, and then they launched with me not on deck. I’m shot in the upper arm, really bad, bleeding like crazy, there’s HYDRA goons everywhere, and I don’t know who I can trust. I grabbed up a gun and tried to clear the area, looking for Cap and anyone shooting at him. I saw some crazy stuff going down as the Helicarriers went up, with Sam Wilson flying around and all, and I think I saw Cap fighting the Winter Soldier, but I was losing blood and starting to gray out. I wasn’t going to do anyone any good. Then the Triskellion collapsed.” He breathed in and out slowly. “I was way on the edge, but I still got partway buried. Luckily the rescue personnel got me out quickly and down to a triage unit someone had set up outside. Unluckily, some eager undercover HYDRA doctor figured that with the Helicarriers crashing into the Potomac, that their Winter Soldier had failed and they were going to need a new one. I fit the criteria physically, they could check my file at SHIELD for the skills, and I was wounded and bleeding out with an arm that was going to have to come off because it was so messed up. In the confusion, that guy put me on an ambulance and delivered me to a HYDRA safehouse for my… transformation.

“Their mistake was being too hasty. I was checking out, on my way to the pearly gates. They were supposed to brainwash me first, then give me their version of the super-soldier serum so I’d be tough enough to take on Cap. But they needed me to keep breathing first. I guess I coded a couple of times when they were transported me and someone must have panicked; they gave me the serum to save my life. Once I stabilized, they put me on ice for over five months.”

Hunter nodded in understanding. HYDRA had been very busy and likely hadn’t wanted to spare the personnel for their pet assassin project right off the bat. 

“Once they thawed me, they tried the soft sell first. Got me through the introduction and first round of ‘rah rah HYDRA’ crap. I told them to stuff it. Then they tried the drugs and swirly lights and sounds thing. Then they realized it wasn’t taking as well as they’d hoped. The serum was letting my brain heal its pathways too quickly for that to work. They were about to do some pretty radical brain surgery on me when SHIELD crashed their party. I owe you guys my pretty dubious sanity. May and Daisy let me have a weapon and fight back when they didn’t even know me. That’s something I wasn’t going to turn down.”

He smiled broadly at Daisy, and she grinned back at him, clinking a beer bottle and raising it to him in a toast.

\--

Bucky was glad as hell for those few days of quiet, because once Fitz _dove through a hole in the universe_ to save Simmons, things sped up. Grant Ward, HYDRA’s righteous fuckstick, poured on the hate and got himself an eventual case of the deads on an alien planet.

Too bad it hadn’t stuck. When he’d arrived back on Earth possessed by Cthulhu’s cousin, Bucky had been sent out to save as many of Daisy’s Inhumans as he could from Lash and Hive alike. He hadn’t realized, at that distance, until the last second that he was having to save them from Daisy, too. She would have wanted him too, if she’d been herself.

When she didn’t come back to base after Lincoln had made sure Hive finally met his maker, Bucky understood. He was just going to have to try to find her, and let her know she still had friends.

\--

“When did you get back, Barnes?”

Bucky lifted the last crate of supplies and weapons onto the elevator to the Zephyr before giving May a brief shrug. “About an hour ago. They’ve had me on the go ever since Hive, pretty much.”

She raised an eyebrow a quarter of an inch. “You’re allowed downtime. You’re _guaranteed_ downtime.”

“If I get us resupplied fast enough, hopefully everyone will forget about the medical checkups between all the meetings and PR conferences and Director-manded tours.”

May gave a tight nod at that, and glanced down the hall towards the labs. “You should still see Simmons, before she has to go chase you down. You know she will. Fitz too; he’ll want the notes on the upgrades.”

Bucky used his shiny silver left arm to shove the heavy crate into position. “It’s great. It does everything but polish itself and play music. Well, and shoot rockets, but I’m fine with that. I’ll let Mike have the lock on integrated projectiles.”

May shook her head at him. Bucky tried to resist her stare.

He lasted a record of seven seconds before sucking it up and going to the labs.

\--

“Clean bill of health?” Mack asked, stowing the last of Bucky’s loading work.

“Still breathing, still well-oiled, still mostly sane,” he said.

Mack nodded, and radioed the cockpit that they were ready to go. Bucky gripped a rail for balance as the Zephyr hummed, climbed, and then accelerated.

“You’ve been having any better luck finding Daisy?” Mack asked, with a care for whatever listening devices might be present. Coulson would throw a fit if he found any, but Bucky wouldn’t put it past any of their allies or enemies trying to find out what they were up to.

“Not much better than you,” Bucky confessed.

“Well, at least you don’t have to run around waving guns in order to play right for the cameras. I have high hopes for you; she likes you, you were a great teammate-.”

Bucky could hear the undertones, and just wanted them to stop. He groaned more loudly than he had to, and Mack shut up. 

Bucky put his face in his right hand, stopping himself from covering his face with both. Fitz had done a lot to smooth the action of the plates and joints in the metal arm, but rubbing his face with both hands still risked looking like he’d taken a cheese grater to his left cheek. 

“I sure as hell aren’t going to pressure her into talking with me,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “Not after what happened with Lincoln.”

“Daisy and Lincoln…” Mack trailed off, and waggled his hand slightly. Bucky nodded, but sighed.

“Between everything at Afterlife and with Lash and SHIELD and whatever Lincoln had had going on in his life before… There was a lot there, but they were making it work. I like Daisy a lot, I respect her a lot more, and I knew better than to push where I was going to be a third wheel. I’m not going to jump on the third rail of trying to being a rebound or anything more than a friend when she feels she can’t be part of SHIELD anymore.”

Mack ignored the talk of rebounds. Bucky knew he’d had a bit of a crush on Daisy since she’d help rescue him, but he’d kept it tamped down. He’d rather be good at being her friend than be a shit boyfriend.

“So you _have_ talked to her?”

“That would be illegal without telling the Director,” Bucky said immediately, and primly. Prim was an odd look on Barnes, Mack decided. He really didn’t want to see it again. He deliberately turned his back on Barnes so the man could slip out at their next touchdown and he couldn’t have claimed to see it.

\---

Bucky wasn’t doing anything different than Coulson; Daisy was hurt and feeling like she had a lot to make up for, that meant look for maximum trouble and inserting herself into it. Between her hacking skills and Inhuman powers, she was a one-woman army when it came to taking on the Watchdogs and all of their associates, subsidiaries, close friends, and casual acquaintances. Well, the last was a little hyperbolic, but looking over the list of newspaper articles, blogs, tweets, and Quake fan reports it was clear Daisy wasn’t letting anything slide, from safehouses to clandestine money. He admired the hell out of her dedication, if he hadn’t been so damn worried about her burning herself out.

Or shaking herself apart. He and Yo-Yo had been doing a little benevolent conspiracy. Until one of them could convince Daisy to come in, or to at least accept some backup, they’d help any way they could. Yo-Yo was on the outside, checking in with Mack, flirting sincerely and palming bone-healing drugs clandestinely. Bucky was doing what he could on the inside.

L.A. was their current epicenter for Quake sightings. He left Coulson and Mack to check out the obvious sites of Daisy’s latest round of bank robberies and building destruction, and headed out into where the rumors and stories went from wild exaggerations to wild exaggerations with very well-done graffiti.

 _Ghost Rider._ Yeah, that sounded like something Daisy would throw herself into, just like Yo-Yo had suggested. He pointed his motorcycle towards the south, and got ready to start his flower search.

\--

Bucky blessed and cursed Yo-Yo for suggesting he follow the strangest situations he could find as he saw Daisy get tumbled to the ground from the roof of the speeding ( _flaming!_ ) car. He hadn’t wanted to see that, was definitely not going to get that out of his head. Not even when Daisy completed her roll by getting to her feet as May had taught her, leaning against the nearest building to get her breath and balance back. 

But he didn’t hesitate as he revved his motorcycle. Part of him wanted to check out if she was really hurt, wanted to demand answers and come up with an action plan. But right now Daisy didn’t want sympathy. She wanted her own set of answers, and woe to any in her way. Even herself.

She looked up, shocked, when Bucky slowed down next to her. “I’ll follow him and call you when he stops!” he said, and tossed her a cheap burner phone. She’d be able to tell in minutes that it lacked SHIELD tracking technology; Bucky could only hope that she’d be willing to answer when he called about whatever he could find.

\--

Bucky slowed to a halt as the car disappeared into the morass of traffic, scowling as he carefully refrained from gripping the handlebars too hard with his left hand. Mack would kill him if he had to do the same repair two weeks in a row. Maybe Bucky could have kept up with this Ghost Rider, but it would have involved weaving between traffic, making a scene in public, and risking someone putting the whole thing on their phone. Not worth it, not when the guy seemed more interested in getting away than causing mayhem. 

At least right now. The whole flaming skull/car/weapon thing didn’t exactly paint him as a peacemaker.

Bucky spun the bike around and returned to the shop, mostly expecting to see Daisy already gone. To his surprise, she was hanging out of the back of her van, wrapping her arms and grimacing at the bruises. A half-hidden pill bottle, rather familiar from the ones he’d helped Yo-Yo swipe, was tucked behind a water bottle. She was moving a little stiffly, but for all the acrobatics (and falling) she’d been doing earlier, she looked to be still all right. Daisy was the wrong name for her; Briar Rose, maybe, or Thistle.

 _Beware her thorns._ He quickly decided he would say that to her exactly never.

“Thought you’d be long gone,” he said, parking and dismounting, after checking all around for anyone else watching. Despite all the commotion, there didn’t seem to be a soul around. Industrial areas in the city could be peculiar oases of silence at some times of day.

“Thought about it. But then the world decided to go for a little spin, and my hands hurt, so I’m taking five.” She finished her left-hand wrapping, and Bucky held out his hands in her direction, wordlessly asking if she wanted some help. She hesitated, then gave him the other roll of bandages. He deftly began to wrap up her right hand. “I didn’t think you’d come. I didn’t know if I’d see you again.”

“Same here,” Bucky said, flicking his eyes up. She flinched a little, but didn’t pull her hand away. “I- we miss you, Daisy.”

“I can’t-. I’ve got to go after these guys. SHIELD can’t anymore, not like we used to, not without Coulson in charge.”

“The new Director isn’t… terrible,” Bucky said judiciously. Daisy snorted in disbelief, and he gave her a quick smile. “They needed a good face, and you peaced out before they could offer you the job, so…”

She picked up her water bottle to slap his shoulder with, and then took a long drink. “Yeah, right. I don’t think the UN would exactly be keen on a twenty-something Inhuman with my stellar lineage being in charge of shadow operations for the weird stuff.”

“Better than some others,” Bucky said. He looked up at the sky, down at the road, then back at Daisy before finally biting the bullet and asking the question he’d studiously been avoiding for the past hour. “Daisy, what the absolute hell is going on?”

“Um… what do you mean?”

“That’s guy’s head was _on fire_. He lit a chain _on fire_ , his car was _on fire_ ,” Bucky said, trying not to look like he was questioning his own sanity.

Daisy stared at him for a heartbeat with wide, startled eyes, and Bucky wondered how fast he could verbally backtrack before she quaked him into unconsciousness and put in a call for Coulson to stick him in the lab. 

“Oh thank God you saw that too,” she said all in a rush. Bucky released a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding, and realized she was also sighing in relief. “I thought… Look, I need to look into this guy, more than I already have. Robbie said he went after all those others because they were really bad, murders, abusers, people the cops couldn’t find or wouldn’t touch. And he says he isn’t an Inhuman.”

“I’m ready to believe that. I don’t think Inhuman powers cover making your car catch on fire and not explode.”

Daisy laughed a little, and Bucky finished the wrapping on her right hand. He had a pair of her Quake gauntlets he’d “liberated” from the Stores. Prototypes, not under the same security as her old agent gear, and Fitz and Simmons both would swear up, down, and sideways that they hadn’t seen him take them. Which they hadn’t, as they’d both turned their backs and had an elaborate conversation about fluid dynamics or particle physics or something he wasn’t remotely qualified to understand while he stuffed them in a bag and strolled out. He took the package out and put it under her blanket next to her bone-growth pills. She could probably disguise the gauntlets with some effort, and he didn’t want to think about the number of side effects of taking those pills too long. Simmons had listed them, and they ranged from unpleasant to sci-fi horror gross.

“Daisy, the Director isn’t watching me so closely. You want a hand? I’ve got one free. It detaches, even.”

Daisy bit her lip to keep from smiling, then put on her sober face. “I can’t. I can’t put you in his sights too. I have to do-.”

“-Do this on my own. Come on, you don’t think I know that tune already? Been singing that since I was sixteen.”

May had filled Bucky in on what he’d missed during the reappearance of the dead Grant Ward. He’d been globe-hopping in an attempt to save other Inhumans, working with Mike Peterson and his squad until he was solidly secure in both his head and his skills. And he cursed himself that he hadn’t been able to help them against that nightmare. Daisy’s reaction of going rogue made total sense to him.

She blamed herself, no matter what anyone else told her. She hadn’t been able to save Mike Peterson the first time he’d been captured, hadn’t seen Ward for what he was until it had been too late, hadn’t realized her mother had been so cruel, hadn’t been able to stop Charles Hinton’s vision from becoming true, hadn’t protected herself from Hive, hadn’t been able to save Andrew, or keep Lincoln from sacrificing himself. That was blow after blow after blow to the heart, to the ego, to everything she had held dear. And now all she wanted to do was put up armor around herself while she tried to get some control back.

Oh yes, Bucky had that damn melody _cold_. 

He hadn’t wanted to barge in here like he was “saving” her. The last thing she wanted was to be handled. There had been too much of counting the blame rather than seeing what they _had_ done right by her, by him too. Even though she’d run, she’d done it with the intent of burning her enemies on a pyre of her self-sacrifice. She could have quit, hid, checked out, but instead had pushed herself harder and harder.

Bucky respected the hell out of that. 

“You think you can stand to have me around?” Bucky asked.

Daisy cradled her right arm, using her left to fumble a bottle of pills out of her pocket. Bucky leaned over, telegraphing the movement clearly, and she let him take it and open it for her, spilling out two into her palm so she could swallow them, chasing the bitter medicine with a swing from her water bottle.

“The Director doesn’t have tabs on you?” she asked. 

“I don’t fit into any neat little box. Or the spectrum of security,” he pointed out, and Daisy’s lips curved up at bit at the bit of bureaucratic nonsense. “Mace has Coulson and Mack under closer watch than either of them want. I came in so close to the end of Coulson’s stint at Director that he doesn’t think I’m part of troublemaking team. Though I think the whole bit about me being prepped to be a HYDRA assassin makes him eager to keep me at a distance.”

“Thought he would have tagged you like an Inhuman.”

“Can’t,” Bucky said with a bit of pardonable smugness. “The arm interferes with the watch, even if it’s on my right wrist. And I know too much about SHIELD and HYDRA both to be let out into the wild, so he can’t just boot me to civilian status. So I’ve been running errands for May and checking up on the Inhumans in between Coulson and Mack’s visits.”

“Hence the,” and Daisy waggled the pill bottle as Bucky nodded. “So, they can’t watch you, and aren’t expecting you back?”

“There’s enough people in the L.A. area to justify me staying around for a while. How the hell do we catch this Ghost Rider?”

“Robbie Reyes. He’s got family, but I’d rather not try him at home. But the Inhumans who’ve been targeted by the Watchdogs, I think they’re connected to the Chinatown Crew. I want to go after them before they go into hiding. Robbie… his second job is mostly a night shift.”

“No kidding. So. Not going to tell me to get lost?”

Daisy looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “No. I-. No, screw it, let’s go get the information off of these guys.”

\--

Ghost Rider, it turned out, hadn’t been lying when he said he sold his soul to the devil. By the time Bucky was ready to believe that, he was damn glad he did, because nothing was going to stop Robbie’s psycho uncle but someone who was stronger than any force on Earth.

The best thing that had come out of that whole mess was that Daisy came out smelling like a rose, raised up like a hero and given the recognition she deserved.

She needed that. They all needed that.

Because rogue demons weren’t enough for the universe to throw at them this year. Oh no. They had to deal with damn rogue robots too.

\--

James opened the door a crack and looked up and down the alley before stepping outside with the trash. With the new alerts out for SHIELD terrorists, you couldn’t be too careful. James never considered himself very brave, but with Becca still in school, his job at the café payed the necessary bills and he couldn’t quit. He checked once more for suspicious cars, then scuttled over to the dumpster and slung the heavy bag in. His left arm banged against the side, and he rubbed it where the pain blossomed. His left arm always tended to hurt, back since he’d landed wrong during a football practice in high school. 

Shaking off the feeling, he turned to go back inside and nearly yelped. Two young women, their faces the ones he’d seen on the alert on his phone, were standing no more than three feet from him.

“Bucky!” the one in the black jacket said, eyes wide and surprised, looking happy to see him. Which… didn’t jive at all. He’d never seen her, not anyone like her. No one had ever looked at him like that. “You’ve got both arms here? And rockin’ a man-bun. I like it.”

James gingerly patted his hair with one hand while he tried to fish for his phone in his apron pocket with the other, slowly backing away. “Look, I don’t want any trouble, please, just don’t hurt me!”

“Hurt you?” The other woman had a British accent, and a frankly bewildered expression. “Bucky, we would never hurt you.”

“How did you know that nickname?” he said, feeling cold that the cameras back here were recording this. If someone knew he’d been talking to wanted terrorists, HYDRA would take Becca away, throw James in detention, he’d never seen his sister again…

“Bucky, it’s me, Daisy,” the jacketed woman said. The woman in the long trenchcoat tugged at her sleeve. 

“Daisy, he’s like Coulson, we have to _go_. We can’t help anyone if we get captured, not if he already called-.”

“No, I’m not giving up on everyone! Bucky, your parents named you James Buchanan Barnes, and you hated your middle name so much you took the nickname Bucky. You have a younger sister named Rebecca, and when you knew your parents couldn’t pay for college for both of you after your mother got sick, you joined the military so Rebecca could go to school. You were in DC during Project Insight, got hurt during the fight, and HYDRA captured you. They replaced your left arm with cybernetics and tried to brainwash you to be the next Winter Soldier. When SHIELD broke you out, you joined us once you’d recovered. Your sister died in a car crash before she could go to college, and your parents think you’re dead because you didn’t want to put them through having to mourn you twice. You’re my teammate, my partner, you think asparagus is a crime against humanity and take your coffee black but with so much sugar the spoon should stand up in it.” 

The girl in the trenchcoat spoke up, despite looking like she thought this was a very bad idea. “I’m Jemma Simmons, Bucky. You took a traumatic injury to your left side in the Project Insight launch, and had a concussion and lost your left arm. The HYDRA cybernetics were extensive, and you were also given a modified version of the super-soldier serum used on Steve Rogers. You always said your arm would still ache, even after I checked your nerve responsiveness for misfiring and Fitz upgraded your arm’s tactile responsiveness and utility. You never wanted the cosmetic modifications we made for Coulson because you said you wanted a reminder.”

James rubbed his left shoulder reflexively, the ache there suddenly strong. _Just a suggestion, they just brought it up, they couldn’t know, none of this is true…_

Why did he know the name Coulson? Hadn’t he been… yes, he’s been James’ history teacher! Becca’s, now that he remembered. His parents had been so proud to see him graduate and go off to college. His mother was fine, just fine, the cancer that had plagued her side of the family had happily never touched her. 

He’d never watched her grow pale, never visited her in the hospital every week, never waited while she had surgery, never saw his dad have to take off time to care for her. Never even thought about the military, never held a rifle, never killed a person, never had gotten hurt, never had lost a limb, had strangers swarming over him, a hated metal halo around his head, voices insisting on who he was, who he had to be-.

James gritted his teeth, hand over his left shoulder, feeling cold. _No!_ “No! My family is fine, my sister is fine, I got my degree in theater, the job market’s just tight and I needed to send some money back ‘cause college is expensive…”

“Bucky? It’s me, Daisy. Daisy Johnson. You know me.” Her voice was quiet, but there wasn’t anything soft about it. She could be stubborn as hell, all of them could, but she had a special kind of stubborn-.

 _-the hated metal halo coming down, coming to take him away again. Tell him what to think, who to be._ A ragged flash of pain tore across his head, and Bucky jerked back, eyes wide. _“You’ll be the new Fist of HYDRA.” “Not today, assholes!” His new arm coming up around the throat of the technician nearest to him as he screamed from the resulting pain of fighting against their control._

“I… I can’t,” he whispered.

“You can,” Jemma said, eyes widening as she shot a look at Daisy. He heard her murmur something to her about “Coulson” and “Tahiti” and then louder, “partial immunity from repeated exposure.”

_Anton swinging the metal halo down and Bucky panicking as the drugs finally pulled him under, pulled him deep, pulled him into waking up to his alarm, panicking for being late to his job. Panicking at the sight of Daisy and Jemma…_

At the sight of his friends.

“The… halo?” he whispered. “I remember… It’s happened before?”

“There’s another world, the real world. This world, it’s false, it’s a computer construct called the Framework, made by AIDA,” Jemma said urgently.

“You remember her? Went rogue with Radcliff, joined forces with Anton, replaced half of base with robots, lured us to a submarine?” Daisy said.

“It’s all… not real?” Beyond the metal halo, the invasion of his mind, were happy family dinners, his parents healthy and busy, Becca showing off her new band uniform as James talked about what new roles he was auditioning for. 

“I’m sorry,” Daisy said. “Bucky, I’m sorry, but it’s not real.”

“My life…”

“You’re wasting away in a machine, and we’re trying to get everyone out! Please, Bucky, please! We need you!”

“I… don’t know you,” he said, backing up slowly. His eyes were darting, looking for the cameras that were always there, somewhere. “I don’t!” 

“Bucky, please, we could really use a win right now…”

James jerked back at the sound of his childhood nickname. No one had called him Bucky since he’d thrown a damn fit about it in the third grade, insisting it was a baby name. Only Becca could get away with it, and only then in private. How the hell had this woman known that name?

Something tickled in the back of his mind, someone else in a black leather jacket, head on fire, the woman with her hand extended, waves of force-.

He shook his head so hard he actually knocked it against the wall. “Go away! They’re coming, go away!”

Jemma, the woman in the trenchcoat, grabbed Daisy’s arm. “Come on, we have to go. Bucky, we’ll come back for you.”

“Fight it, Bucky. HYDRA tried to take your mind once before, don’t let AIDA do it now!” Daisy said, and then finally yielded to Jemma’s persistent pulling. James watched them go, frozen in fear and indecision, until he saw the lights and heard the sirens from HYDRA operatives rushing by in their SUVs. They’d find those two terrorists…

His arm ached and felt so heavy, like it was dragging down on his whole body. He rubbed it with his right hand, feeling the unyielding metal underneath-. James froze and poked his shoulder again. Flesh and bone, just aching a bit with the damp weather and the stress. Just his normal shoulder. Just as he was James, and not anyone else. He darted back inside before his supervisor could start yelling for him, and got back to his job. 

\--

That night, he couldn’t sleep. No, he didn’t dare sleep. The first time he’d dozed off, he’d dreamt of himself in uniform, things exploding in the sky, pain and fear. Then more pain and superior smirks as people with the familiar HYDRA symbol looked down on him, the beeping of medical equipment nearby. More explosions, then Daisy’s face, and behind her the familiar formidable face of Commander May. He’d taken up and weapon and handled it like it was second nature, grim satisfaction coiling through him as he turned to cover their advance…

He'd started awake at the echo in his ears of medical equipment, left shoulder aching fiercely. He gripped it hard, shoving aside the alien feel of metal under his hand until he could feel flesh again. 

He breathed out slowly, trying to suppress panic, and then nearly choked when his phone buzzed: A national alert from HYDRA about escaped terrorists and a deadly Inhuman. Daisy’s face looked up at him from the small screen, and James heard the metallic whirring from his left arm. Part of him felt relief; they hadn’t been able to hold her.

_A voice shouting out in Russian, commands to capture, not kill. A blow from his blind side. AIDA’s face as she shoved him back in the cradle. His own screams when he saw the thin metal halo coming down around his head. His left arm broke free and AIDA’s arm snapped in a spurt of hydraulic fluid and a cascade of sparks. Cold drugs invaded his system and he slumped, falling, falling…_

His phone buzzed again. _Dangerous Terrorists! Call If Spotted!_ There were more pictures this time, Jemma, Daisy, a tall man built like a wall ( _Mack_ his brain whispered, unbidden), and… damn, his high school history teacher, Mr. Coulson.

_Director._

His shoulder hurt again. Cold.

“James? You want breakfast? If not, I’m eating all the waffles myself!” Becca called up the stairs.

Becca had died in a car crash when Bucky was twenty-one.

 _No!_ Becca was downstairs, his parents were in Arizona, he hadn’t gone by Bucky since he was ten, and he had a job-.

_Hand sliding smoothing into the grip of his pistol, drawing it with practiced ease and lining up the sights on the Watchdog’s chest…_

James had never held a gun in his life.

“James?”

“You eat, Becca, I’ll get something later.”

His sister’s sound receded, and soon he heard the door open and shut. He stared at the phone, at the wall, trying to make sense of the maelstrom his life had become. 

His head felt cool pressure around it. His left arm ached, solid and heavy.

His sister had never graduated from high school.

Daisy wanted him to wake up.

His eyes fluttered, each weighing a thousand pounds, and he saw a narrow metal room. A row of people was off to his right, each one propped up and strapped in, lights blinking on the metallic cages around their heads. Rust and grease and rubbing alcohol assaulted his nose, more powerful than memory. Bucky reached out and grabbed for more support, ripping the IV out of himself, the neural net off of his head.

Warm memories of Becca, his mother, acting classes and the coffee shop swirled in his head, vying for supremacy with Army training, HYDRA’s capture, and the laughter of the gang in the base, on the Zephyr. Daisy grinning up at him, Fitz tinkering with his arm, Coulson always there with some kind of solution. 

“ _…there? Barnes, are you there?_ ” He recognized Piper’s voice after a second.

“I’m here, I’m out,” he said softly.

“Thank God. Look, Daisy’s trying to get the others out, but you have to guard them while they’re still under. If AIDA pulls the plug on the Framework, they’re gone.”

“Where the hell is Daisy?!” he demanded, not seeing her here.

“On the Zephyr with me and the others. Bucky, you’re in a submarine with a bunch of Watchdogs and you’re the only one watching their backs!”

Bucky grunted and broke off the second arm of the cradle he’d been in. “I think I’ll wake up a little if I get to beat Anton upside the head. Tell Daisy to get a move on, or I’ll figure out a way to go in after her!”

Bucky figured he got his fill of fighting robots that day, with Anton and his robot clones trying to clog the doorway once they’d figured out one of them was loose. By the time the submarine was about to implode and Yo-Yo had finally yanked Mack out by the skin of their teeth, Bucky was nearly knee-deep in robot parts and still fighting-mad.

As it turned out, AIDA was a little madder than that. Finding out their android psycho had become their super-powered Inuman psycho did not make the week any better.

By the time they’d solved that problem with a magic book, a demon, and a gate, Bucky figured the universe owed them dinner and a chance to catch up.

Later, Bucky figured that the universe must have looked at them and gone, “Challenge accepted.”

\--

Bucky reached out blindly as the disorientation receded enough he didn’t think he was going to lose his lunch. His left hand _clunked_ against metal, jarring him enough to make him open his eyes. The room swam dimly, and he blinked to clear his vision. It didn’t help much, and he realized after a minute that it wasn’t his eyes that were dim, the room itself was. 

“What…?” he said slowly, and heard a grunt of pain behind him. He turned to see a tangle of pipes and conduits, and standing there, with one of them running through her thigh, was May. Her expression showed it was bloody murder for whoever had allowed this to happen, along with stoic acceptance of what had to be a hell of a lot of pain.

“No idea,” May said. “I don’t remember how I got here, just this.” She waved at her offending limb.

“Or where here is,” Bucky added, relieved this time he wasn’t the only one with a touch of amnesia. The place reminded him of a boiler room, though with a dry crackle to the air that didn’t jive with them being below ground. In the distance, _something_ screeched metallically, and there was a skittering sound that was definitely nonhuman.

_Nope. Nope nope nope. I did not escape being a barista for the damned to die in a horror movie._

May flicked her eyes down at her leg, and Bucky went to one knee. However the hell they’d gotten there, the pipe had gone straight through the meat of her thigh without any evidence of traumatic entry or exit, like she’d materialized into it.

That made as much sense as anything. Bucky’s stomach was starting to settle but his head felt like it was full of cotton wool when it came to how the hell they’d ended up here.

Bucky checked himself and found he was still wearing his belt and an extra layer of shirt beneath his jacket. He handed them wordlessly to May, then waited for her to nod once. Quickly he pinched the pipe in his metal hand, broke it and yanked it out from the other side as smoothly as he could. May nailed her sounds of pain behind her teeth and shoved his makeshift supplies in his free hand. Shirt to sop up the blood, belt to keep the pressure on, and they were about as good as they were going to get.

May took a few tentative hobbling steps, her expression set on extra-stoic, as the metallic screeching echoing outside the room got closer. Bucky finished breaking off a good length of pipe, enough to act as a staff (or a cane) and May took it with another terse nod.

If Daisy were here, she’d probably be ribbing him about having conversations in pantomime. He smiled a little at that.

“You know something I don’t?” May asked.

“Probably not,” Bucky said, and froze as the door shifted, then swung in.

A man flung himself through the doorway, Bucky’s height, scruffy, leather jacket, a wannabe Han Solo sort. 

“Lemme guess, come with you if you want to live?” Bucky said.

The guy looked at them with zero sense of irony and responded, “Yeah, basically. Let’s _go!_ ”

\--

 

The unholy scream echoed in the metal corridor as the too-fast misshapen thing came running on the floors, walls, and ceilings like gravity was optional. Bucky lunged in front of Jemma and Coulson, left arm up to intercept as the thing suddenly exploded in a quake.

Behind the carnage, Daisy put her hand down, eyes wide. Bucky crossed the gore-splattered floor and pulled her into a hug before pulling back for a fist bump. “Nice entrance.”

“Pretty good for just waking up from whatever the hell just happened.”

“How many more of those things are out there?”

A screech echoed through the corridor. “At least one more. Let’s get the hell out of here and find the others. The only person who was around to tell us anything already got killed by one of these things.”

Bucky swore under his breath.

\--

He swore a lot more when he realized they were in space.

\--

When Melinda told them all they were in the future, he threw up his hands with the rest of them. Why not? Why not be in space in the future?

“Not like we’ve done anything weirder.”

“Like get sucked through a portal to another world.”

“Don’t even start…”

\--

Nothing much had improved by the time the Kree (and wasn’t that fun to discover) had decided to go a little recreational kidnapping to go along with their brutal dictatorship. 

“I’m going after Simmons. You guys stay here and find out what you can to get us home.” Daisy turned and lost herself in the crowd before there could be any arguing. Bucky was right on her heels, not needing Coulson’s nod to go after her. Daisy glanced back at him, but didn’t try to wave him off or lose him.

Deke’s introduction to the Lighthouse and the history he knew thereof, too slick, too smooth, far to smarmy to be totally legitimate, had shaken Daisy up more than anything. Seeing the cracked Earth in the sky and then seeing the careful footage Deke had inserted into his unreal bar of Daisy striding from a Quinjet before the world had ended was enough to send anyone into a tailspin. He wasn’t going to let her face that on her own. She could take care of herself, but he wanted to make sure there were no more surprises in store.

\--

Kasius quirked his head at Bucky as his guards dragged Daisy off unconscious. “Curious. Certainly I would have recognized such… interesting design before. Normally I have no need of imperfect creatures, but you did destroy two of my guards.”

From the corner of the room, the blue woman kept sliding the steel orbs through her hand, the smallest of sly smiles on her face.

“Normally I’d just see you dead, but since you have inconvenienced me, I believe you’ll do for some entertainment before the main event. Give them a little something to distract them before we bring out the Destroyer of Worlds.”

Bucky felt his pulse jump when Kasius dropped that information, but focused on not showing anything. Whatever he wanted to believe about him was fine, as long as he could get to Daisy, rescue Simmons, and get the hell out of this dystopian nightmare.

Coulson better have found a way home by the time they’d gotten back, because Bucky was very much Done with being kidnapped.

\--

She reached for him when he arrived in their now-mutual prison cell and he gave her the biggest hug he could, relaxing a little for maybe the first time since they’d arrived in this dystopian hellhole. 

“You okay?” she asked, pulling back enough to look him over and him to nod. She leaned against him, her arms loose, and he tucked his arm around her for support, guiding them both down onto a chair. “I’m not great.”

“Can’t imagine why,” he said dryly, holding her a little closer, and she snorted. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and they just enjoyed a companionable silence for a moment.

“I saw Simmons; she’s all right for now. But she got the drift I’m going to get auctioned off as some kind of political move by Kasius. There’s going to be a demo and everything.”

Bucky kept himself from tightening his hand around her too much, and scowled at the general direction of Kasius. “Don’t suppose you can try something then?”

“I’m planning on it.” But that lacked her usual verve, and she was looking a lot more upset than just their usual round of complicated circumstances of immanent death. “Bucky, what May saw… What Deke showed me…”

“That jerk made sure you landed here in the first place, so don’t listen to him,” Bucky said. “He’s a weasel.”

She laughed a little, but didn’t stay smiling long. “The year I got my powers, we had an encounter with a couple of Asgardians. Lorelai escaped down here to conquer, and one of Thor’s friend, Sif, came down to help us stop her. When she found out what I could do… Sif said that one day I might be able to crack worlds. How do we know that’s not what I do? Deke had that mock-bar, all that stuff set up when he didn’t even believe he was ever going to meet me. If I don’t have my powers,” she touched the device behind her ear that regulated her Inhuman abilities, “then I can’t break the world. But I can free these people here.”

“You won’t break the world. Simmons said you won’t, May said it, Mack said it, Fitz, Yo-Yo, Coulson, and me. Daisy, you _wouldn’t do that._ ”

“They why is there footage of me getting out of the Quinjet and heading right to ground zero?”

“Because you were trying to stop it,” Bucky said. “And the only reason that footage didn’t show me having your back is because I’m damn good at knowing where the cameras are.”

She dropped her head down on his shoulder at that comforting thought, and he thought he saw her smile against the fabric. Then she pulled her head up, rubbing at her forehead. “Ow. Metal shoulder. Don’t do that again.”

Bucky laughed as Daisy tried to fluff up his jacket enough to be comfortable and then laid her head back down more gingerly. 

\--

Time travel could actually be handy, Bucky realized. He had never been so grateful to see Fitz before in his life.

It could also be a horrible paradox that was going to doom them all, according to Robin and to Simmons. Gravity-spiking Sinara and Kasius going full beserker rage was about the only good distractions when they were frantically still trying to get home.

\--

“I’m not going back! We have to break the loop, and we can only do that if I’m not there!”

Coulson kept his hands down and out, like he did when he was trying to de-escalate a standoff, but Bucky was pretty sure not even Coulson was going to talk Daisy off of this ledge.

“Daisy, we’ll find a way, I promise we will. But we have to go now,” Coulson said. “Enoch and Deke can’t hold out much longer. The monolith is going to open soon, and we need to be there!”

“Coulson… please, just go!”

Bucky closed the gap between Daisy and Coulson, and she hardened her expression. She was not going to be moved; he knew that look really well by now.

“Hey,” he said softly. “You know in movies where people spend way too much time talking when they could be running out of the collapsing building? This is one of those times. You’re not going to let this collapse on us.”

“Bucky…” Daisy’s voice was rough with emotion, and her eyes kept darting, looking for a way out. Behind her, Bucky could see Coulson’s hand drift to his ICER. “I won’t let anyone go through this again, please.”

“You and me together, we’re going to figure this out. Powers or no, we’re going to kick the past in the ass,” Bucky said, taking a few steps closer and holding out both hands. 

“We need you, Daisy,” Coulson said, not yet touching the trigger. “We want you home.” And Bucky knew he meant that, and he knew Daisy meant it too; as a friend, as a father-figure, but also as a boss. Coulson was SHIELD, and SHIELD needed Quake. No matter how much Coulson cared for Daisy, you couldn’t separate him from SHIELD.

“I want to lose arguments with you,” Bucky said, and everything else more eloquent failed to make it off his tongue. Daisy blinked at him as the building shook, stone and dust raining down on them. “I don’t want to go back without you. I’ll stay here with you if you need to, but I want us to go home.”

“Was that-, are you saying-?”

“I love you-.”

Daisy cut him off with a kiss that made the earth move.

“Uh, guys, the Monolith?”

Oh, right.

Daisy took Bucky’s hand and ran through the corridors with Coulson as the rock of Kasius’ quarters rumbled and shook. “We’re stopping this from happening, right?”

“Very right.”

“Good, because I really didn’t want to have to ICE you to get you to come along,” Coulson said, turning the last corner to find the rest of the team standing there in frantic agitation.

“I’d have broken the world over your head if you did,” Daisy said pointedly. 

May flicked her eyes down to Daisy and Bucky’s joined hands, and then back up to Fitz and Simmons.

“About time,” she announced to the air. Coulson moved up next to her, flashing them both an approving smile as the world flashed white and went black.


End file.
